2 weeks so far in TZ

Hey everyone! Mambo!

So I was at an internet cafe earlier today and started the blog, but I didn't have much time to write a lot. But now I am going to try and catch up for the past two weeks that I've been here and not written anything. I'll start from the beginning:

I arrived safely in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, at the airport around 10 pm on May 9th. We had a taxi take us to a hostel about 30 minutes away, where the rest of my group was staying as well. The hostel was really nice, and we each had our own bedroom with our own bathroom as well. We were staying in Dar es Salaam for the next 3 days for orientation and getting accustomed to a new environment. Dar es Salaam is a pretty busy town, lots of traffic and people everywhere but it's really exciting there. Some people speak English, but not much. We went out for dinner twice, one time at a place where I ended up getting antelope (swala) and rice (wali), when I didn't order that. And the other night I had chipsi (french fries) and kuku (chicken)- which I was surprised about I didn't think they had french fries. Anyways, Dar was really nice, and a good way to start off my trip and get used to all the changes - like cockroaches and geckos everywhere! yay!

On Thursday 12th, we took a bus to Morogoro which is the city where we will be living for the next 2 months. The bus stop was so busy, and so many people everywhere selling different food, water, sunglasses, fruit, candies, toys etc.

After a hot, sweaty, squishy bus ride, we finally got to our homestay family. We were introduced to everyone: Our Baba (Himisi), Mama (Fatuma), Sister (Tabu), Dada (Zabi) and cute little 5 year old boy Mwendy was at school so we had to wait to meet him later. We had lunch with them, and our program director and program manager were with us too for lunch. Our family was so nice and welcoming right away, and I was so excite to meet them all.

We then had to go into town, to have some meetings. We met our local YCI volunteers: Frankie, and Magunda, and an intern with YCI who we will be working with as well, Larissa.

So then, later we went back home for our first dinner with our family and met Mwendy. He was pretty scared and shy with us at first, but now he's great, and I love him so much. He has so much energy 24/7, and is always bouncing around everywhere. So cute!

Friday: we did some more meeting with members of the partner organization: Faraja Trust Fund, we had introductions and then went around town a bit, exchange money and get phone stuff sorted out. Then we went to where the drama club practices, which is a group of students that YCI works with to incorporate education through drama and skits, and we will be working with them to create presentations in the upcoming weeks.

Saturday: Woke up, and went to the market with Mama. We walked around a bit, we went and bought some Kanga's and Kitenge's (like a sarong, a piece of colourful fabric to wear). They are all so beautiful, I ended up buying two. Oh ya, and before, the day we arrived our Mama gave Jamie and I both kanga's as a welcoming gift! so nice!

So one thing that is a bit different here, is that it's always pretty loud here, there's always music playing loudly everywhere on the street (some American music sometimes which is funny, but then also Bongo Flava, which is like Swahili hip hop/rap/r&b. I love it!

But also, when we go to bed, we can hear babies crying, chickens or roosters making their noises, and music or TV's blaring. Then there is the mosque just a few houses away from us.

So at 5am I always wake up to the prayer call. As well, at 6am, people start blaring their music, which is alright, I don't mind it so much, since we wake up around 7-8 ish in the morning, and also we hear this cat meowing loudly quite often as well. Anyways, that's one change that I've gotten used to.

So, Sunday we had to make a trip out to a rural community (Mikese) where we will be doing 5 workshop/presentations while in Morogoro. The sessions are varied, and are requests of need that the adults of the community want to be more educated on: HIV/AIDS, proposal writing, home based care treatment etc. We took the dala dala (which is a bus, but it's pretty small, and they squish a ton of people in them, when really they should only fit max 15. And on this day, it was really hot out, so it was once again a bit hot and squishy... but not bad.

This next week consisted of planning and preparing for all our of classes, and having meetings with the rest of the members of the partner organization, getting to know the community and having our first classes.

I'll quickly say my classes that I am teaching for now, but I will describe them more in depth later on.

I am teaching a basic English and computers class for youth living with HIV, this takes place at the home based care center, where they come for testing and counselling but then we get to teach them classes once a week. The first class went great, we played some name games, and ice breakers, had a pre-test, and I already am in love with all of the kids. One girl, asked us if we could come to teach more than once a week, which made me so happy to know she is eager to learn. We decided to come one extra time a week, on Thursdays.

The other class right now is life skills to youth who go to the street side school, and is organized by Faraja Trust Fund. This is a bigger class (35), but they are all great as well, and I'm excited to get to know all of them.

I'm also facilitating and teaching topics of choice to a girls club in Chamwino, which is a small area not far from my house, which is a little more rundown and a rougher area. The girls are aged 15-29, and are all so nice and eager to learn. Our first topics are human rights and confidence, this Friday so we will see how that goes.

There are a lot of other things going on that we are working on facilitating, but I will continue describing everything next time I'm on the computer. I will also try to write more details, since this was just a scramble to get everything summarized from the last two weeks.

We also went on a safari this weekend, which I will describe next time too! It was awesome!

Alright, well, I'm getting tired, and I have to wake up early, I have life skills class tomorrow and an internet cafe session with the Home Based Care group of youth.

I'll update again soon! love and miss you all. Kwa heri (bye), Baadaye ki do go (see you later),

Asante sana for reading! (Thank you)

Love: Jenn